You can protect cows, not women: Jaya Bachchan

NEW DELHI: The comments of Indian BJP youth leader in Bengal declaring “Rs. 11 lakh bounty” for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, disowned by the party, provoked anger in parliament today. “You can protect cows, but what about women?” Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan said in the Rajya Sabha, where several opposition parties demanded the government’s response on the BJP youth leader’s comment. Yogesh Varshney, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, is on camera threatening the Chief Minister while accusing her of a police crackdown on a Hanuman Jayanti rally in Birbhum. Alleging that people were beaten up in a baton-charge by the police, he called the Chief Minister a “demon” and said, “When I saw the video, I only had one thought… that if anyone gets me Mamata Banerjee’s head I will give them 11 lakh.” Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi disowned the comment in parliament, saying: “I condemn this type of statement. The state government can take proper action.” Jaya Bachchan, actor-turned-politician, charged, “How dare anybody talk like this about women? Is this the way you are going to be protecting the women of this country? Women are feeling insecure…is this what you are promoting?” In response, the BJP’s Rupa Ganguly shot back: “I am also a woman, I have been beaten up in front of policemen. Let the Chief Minister (Mamata Banerjee) answer this?” The protests were raised by Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, with its parliamentarian Sukhendu Shekhar saying: “The Chief Minister of West Bengal has been called a demon. A reign of terror is being unleashed in the name of religion in Bengal. This incident should be condemned.”